1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to an interface device for discovering, communicating with and controlling devices attached to a network, such as a wired or wireless residential network.
2. Background
Networks in homes and small offices are becoming increasingly popular. This is due, in large part, to an increase in the number of households and small offices having more than one personal computer (PC). Networks provide a variety of benefits to such multi-computer households and offices. For example, such networks enable the users of multiple PCs to share a common printer, to share documents and other files, and to access the Internet via a common network connection.
In light of this increasing popularity, it would be beneficial to extend home/office networks to permit communication with and control of conventional consumer electronic devices such as televisions, stereo equipment, video cassette recorders (VCRs) and digital video disk (DVD) players. However, the vast majority of consumer electronic devices employ infra-red (“IR”) communication as a means of remote device control. Alternatively, serial communication and radio frequency (RF) protocols are used. Unfortunately, these modes of communication are not compatible with packet-based communication protocols, such as TCP/IP, that are used for communication over many home/office networks.
It would also be beneficial to enable conventional consumer electronic devices to advertise themselves to devices on a home/office network and to publish command sets by which they can be controlled. Modem device discovery and control protocols such as the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol may be used to enable such functionality in network-attached devices. However, protocols such as UPnP require compliant products that: (a) are adapted for network connectivity and (b) possess modest computational and storage resources. Conventional consumer electronic devices such as those described above typically lack these features. Thus, consumers that wish to enable these features have little choice but to wait for protocol-compliant devices to come to market and discard their current legacy devices.
In addition to being incompatible with packet-based communication protocols and modem device discovery and control protocols, consumer electronic devices that rely on IR or serial communication protocols suffer from a number of other disadvantages. For example, the vast majority of legacy consumer electronic devices lack a feedback mechanism through which device state can be reported. Modem device discovery and control protocols such as the UPnP protocol typically allow compliant units to publish methods by which an interested network entity might query them for state information. The majority of consumer electronics, however, do not have status reporting mechanisms. For example, consumer IR, which is the dominant form of IR communication, is largely uni-directional.
Also, in order to control consumer electronic devices that rely on IR communication, IR transmitters (also known as “remotes”) must be placed within a very short range of a target device, and transmission paths must be free of obstructions, including physical barriers such as walls. The requirement of close physical proximity and a clear line-of-sight places severe limitations on the manner in which consumer electronic devices that rely on IR may be controlled.
What is desired, then, is a device that allows legacy consumer electronic devices to be controlled via a network, such as a wired or wireless residential network. To this end, the desired device should translate between packet-based communication protocols, such as TCP/IP, and communication protocols used by legacy consumer electronic devices, such as IR and serial protocols.
The desired device should also link the world of modem device discovery and control protocols (such as the UPnP protocol) to the world of legacy devices. For example, the desired device should provide UPnP control and management functionality to legacy devices, while permitting additional “true” UPnP devices to be added to a network as they become available.
The desired device should also be able to determine or deduce the state of one or more legacy consumer electronic devices. The desired device should then be able to publish this state information to interested network entities.
The desired device should further allow control of legacy devices through a network, thereby obviating the use of traditional direct line-of-sight IR controllers. Consequently, a user of the desired device should not need to be in the same room as or have a clear path to the devices that he or she wishes to control. The desired device should thus provide true “remote” control.